Comcast Cares—for NBC - Guest Blog by Marshall Lager

Marshall Lager is the founder and managing principal of Third Idea Consulting, LLC. We've hired Marshall to
provide his perspective on the CRM industry, Sage news, and the state of customer/company dialogue in general.

If
you’ve been following the news, you’ll have seen the bombshell: Cable
system giant Comcast has just acquired a controlling interest in NBC
Universal from the network’s parent, General Electric. If the deal
passes regulatory scrutiny, Comcast will add a major network and a ton
of content to its current offerings. You can read all about it in the New York Times article.

The
first thing I thought of when I heard the deal had gone through was
that one of NBC’s premier products would have to scramble to adapt. I’m
talking, of course, about 30 Rock, the hit comedy series that often
makes its bones by poking fun at its own network parent. Alec Baldwin’s
character Jack Donaghy, a GE executive in charge of programming
operations at NBC’s Rockefeller Center headquarters, is one of the best
things about the show, so I don’t see him going anywhere, but some
emergency rewriting may be in order. Creator-star-lead writer Tina Fey
will likely have to work in an entire new story arc and set of
recurring gags to maintain verité. The feeling is probably similar to
having the rug pulled out from under one’s feet, but if anybody can
handle it she can.

A more serious concern is customer
interaction and corporate image. We can leave GE out of this part of
the discussion for the most part—the company has little visible effect
on NBC Universal, which is probably a good thing for all involved. The
NBC brand itself, however, is another story. It’s been around since the
birth of television, and its status as one of the Big Three (along with
CBS and ABC) is nothing to mess around with. Comcast, on the other
hand, has the sort of reputation that goes along with your typical
cable operator; it’s not associated with programming so much as it is
with monopolized coverage areas, triple plays (TV, Internet, and phone,
oh my!), and frustrated customers. At least, that was the case before
Frank Eliason, Comcast’s Senior Director of National Customer Service,
set out to change that image. You may know him best by his Twitter
handle, @comcastcares. I asked him about the potential effects of the
deal (via Twitter, natch), and he said, “I do not think the NBCU
acquisition will have impact on me, but I can say I am excited about
the business benefits!” It’s a public comment, but not “on the record”
as such, so here’s hoping Frank can continue doing the good work he
started.

Anyway, none of the brands (Comcast, NBC
Universal, or GE) are under Frank Eliason’s control. Corporations slap
their names on anything they get their hands on nowadays—name me a
stadium or public building that’s gone up in the past decade that
doesn’t have a corporate name—and Comcast will have the option of
renaming and/or recasting NBC however it wants. This may not have any
real effect on what is offered by the conjoined companies (though I
expect it will), but it will have massive impact on customer
perceptions of Comcast and NBC. Sponsors will rethink their advertising
spend; creators will adjust their pitches; viewers and other customers
will need to wrap their minds around a new entity.

This
is a fragile moment for the new business venture, or it will be once
the deal is cleared by the FCC and other regulatory bodies. When that
happens, Frank Eliason, along with everybody else at Comcast and NBC,
will need to work overtime to manage changing perceptions, so as not to
sour the experience. With any luck, it’ll at least give Tina Fey some
new gag material for 30 Rock.